George Lycurgus (1858–1960) was a Greek American businessman who played an influential role in the early visitor industry of Hawaiʻi.

He was instrumental in the development of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

In 1893, Lycurgus leased a small guest house on Waikīkī Beach. He expanded it and renamed it the “Sans Souci” (French for “without care” and named after the palace of Frederick the Great in Germany.)

It became one of the first Waikīkī beach resorts (that end of Waikīkī is still called “Sans-Souci Beach.”) Among its guests was Robert Louis Stevenson.

Stevenson wrote in the guest book: “If anyone desires such old-fashioned things as lovely scenery, quiet, pure air, clean sea water, good food, and heavenly sunsets hung out before their eyes over the Pacific and the distant hills of Waianae, I recommend him cordially to the Sans Souci.”

“In 1893 Sans Souci was a rambling hostelry, nestled among the coconut and palm trees of Waikiki Beach. The guests occupied small bungalows, thatched-roof affairs about ten by twelve, the bed being the principal article of furniture. It was in one of these bungalows that Stevenson had established himself, propped up with pillows on the bed in his shirt-sleeves.” Scribner’s Magazine, August, 1926.

By 1898, the Spanish American War had increased American interest in the Pacific. Hawaiʻi was annexed as a territory of the United States and Lycurgus applied for American citizenship.

He opened a restaurant called the Union Grill in Honolulu in 1901. He later invested in a logging venture in 1907 and also bought the Hilo Hotel in 1908.

In 1903, when he returned to Greece to visit his mother, he met and married Athena Geracimos from Sparta. She was probably the first Greek woman in Hawaiʻi.

In December 1904, George and his nephew (Demosthenes Lycurgus) became principal stockholders of the Volcano House Company and took over the management of the Volcano House hotel on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

His nephew always introduced him as “Uncle George” to the guests, which earned him his new nickname.

He worked with Lorrin Thurston and others for ten years, starting in 1906, to have the volcano area made into Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.

In January 1912, geologist Thomas Jaggar arrived to investigate the volcano. A building for scientific instruments was built in a small building next to the hotel. Jaggar stayed in Volcano for the next 28 years.

In 1921, George Lycurgus sold the Volcano House to the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company and moved to Hilo. During the Great Depression the company was going bankrupt and Lycurgus bought it back.

A fire destroyed the hotel in 1940, ironically from a kitchen oil burner, not volcanic activity. Only a few artifacts, such as a koa wood piano, were saved.

At the age of 81, he traveled to Washington, DC to have the construction of the new park headquarters building farther back from the lip of the crater.

That allowed him, in 1941, to build a more modern hotel at the former Hawaiian Volcano Observatory site. He reopened the new Volcano House (designed by notable architect Charles William Dickey.)

After another eruption in 1952, at the age of 93, he arranged a publicity stunt involving riding a horse to the rim of the erupting vent and tossing in his ceremonial bottle of gin. (The offering of gin became a regular at Volcano after that.)

Uncle George died in 1960 at the age of 101.

The National Park recently announced that Hawaiʻi Volcanoes Lodge Company has been selected to operate The Volcano House Hotel, Nāmakanipaio cabins and campground and other commercial services within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The facility is scheduled to reopen in late-2012.

Volcano has been a special place for me.

As a kid, our family often visited Volcano and regularly stayed at the Volcano House. I remember seeing and meeting Uncle George while he was sitting before the continuously-burning fireplace at the Volcano House.

Decades later, I purposefully went to Volcano to plan the formation of my first business; the initial planning was on cocktail napkins at the Volcano House bar (the business succeeded.)

Today, the Young siblings own a house at Volcano our mother built; I used to visit there once a month, but it has been a while since the last visit.

The Volcano Art Center Gallery is located in the 1877 Volcano House Hotel (now adjacent to the Volcano Visitor Center) under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.

The image shows Uncle George at the Volcano House, looking out at the 1952 eruption of Halema‘uma‘u. In addition, I have included some other images of Uncle George and his properties in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

The early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully.

Since it was a crop that produced a choice food product that could be shipped to distant markets, its culture on a field and commercial scale was started as early as 1800 and it continued to grow.

In 1802, sugar was first made in the islands on the island of Lānaʻi by a native of China. He came here in one of the vessels trading for sandalwood, and brought a stone mill and boilers, and after grinding off one small crop and making it into sugar, went back the next year with his fixtures, to China.

The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started at Kōloa on Kaua‘i. On July 29, 1835 (187 years ago, today,) Ladd & Company obtained a 50-year lease on nearly 1,000-acres of land and established a plantation and mill site in Kōloa.

It was to change the face of Kaua‘i (and Hawai‘i) forever, launching an entire economy, lifestyle and practice of monocropping that lasted for over a century. A tribute to this venture is found at the Kōloa Sugar Memorial in Old Kōloa Town.

Sugar gradually replaced sandalwood and whaling in the mid-19th century and became the principal industry in the islands until it was surpassed by the visitor industry in 1960.

Early sugar planters shared many challenges: trade barriers, shortages of water and labor, and the lack of markets for their sugar.

Hawaiians were hired to work on the plantation. This had far-reaching effect on the social and economic make-up of the local society.

This introduced the concept of independence for the Hawaiians. Workers were paid directly and no longer had to pay a tax to the chiefs.

Workers were initially paid with coins. Getting enough coins to pay the workers was difficult in the 1830s. In response, Kōloa Plantation initiated the use of scrip as payment to workers; these were redeemable for purchases at the plantation’s store.

However, due to counterfeiting, in 1839, scrip was printed from engraved plates, with intricate waved and networked lines. This more formal Kōloa Plantation scrip became the first paper money in Hawaiʻi. Not only was this scrip accepted at the Ladd & Company store, it became widely accepted by other merchants on the island.

Sugar was the dominant economic force in Hawaiʻi for over a century, other plantations soon followed Kōloa. By 1883, more than 50 plantations were producing sugar on five islands.

Kōloa Plantation set other standards that endured throughout the islands for over 100-years. In addition to the plantation-owned general store, housing was provided for workers.

Barrack-type buildings or individual homes had space for workers to plant a garden. The company dairy sold milk to plantation workers. Medical services were provided.

Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system. A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.

What encouraged the development of plantations in Hawaiʻi?

For one, the discovery of gold and rush of settlement of California opened lucrative avenues of trade in the Pacific. Likewise, the Civil War virtually shut down Louisiana sugar production during the 1860s, enabling Hawai‘i to compete in a California market that paid elevated prices for sugar.

In addition, the Treaty of Reciprocity – 1875 between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market. Through the treaty, the US obtained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into U.S. markets for their sugar.

At the industry’s peak in the 1930s, Hawaii’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar. That plummeted to 492,000 tons in 1995.

With statehood in 1959 and the almost simultaneous introduction of passenger jet airplanes, the tourist industry began to grow rapidly.

A majority of the plantations closed in the 1990s.

As sugar declined, tourism took its place – and far surpassed it. Like many other societies, Hawaii underwent a profound transformation from an agrarian to a service economy.

The image is Kōloa Sugar Mill in the 1880s; in addition, I have included some other old Sugar Mills related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

The Sugar theme, Mill and other Kaua‘i South Shore sites are included as Points of Interest in the Holo Holo Kōloa Scenic Byway. We are assisting Mālama Kōloa in the preparation of its Corridor Management Plan. Recently, the project was awarded a Historic Preservation Commendation from Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.

The beginnings of aquarium history can be traced back to the 1820s. Through the mid-1800s aquariums displayed rarely exceeded ten gallons, a size used often today in homes and offices. In the United States, the first public aquarium opened in Boston in 1859.

The Waikīkī Aquarium opened on March 19, 1904; it is the third oldest aquarium in the United States. Its adjacent neighbor on Waikīkī Beach is the Natatorium War Memorial.

Then known as the Honolulu Aquarium, it was established as a commercial venture by the Honolulu Rapid Transit and Land Company, who wished to “show the world the riches of Hawaii’s reefs”.

It was also a practical objective of using the Aquarium as a means of enticing passengers to ride to the end of the new trolley line in Kapi‘olani Park, where the Aquarium was located. (The trolley terminus was across Kalākaua Avenue from the Aquarium, near the current tennis courts.)

Many in the community hoped that the Honolulu Aquarium would help develop a flagging tourism industry with the Aquarium serving as a “point of interest.”

Author Jack London called it a “wonderful orgy of color and form” from which he had to tear himself away after each visit.

When the property lease expired in 1919, the Cooke Estate ceded the Aquarium’s property lease to the Territory of Hawai‘i, and the newly formed University of Hawai‘i assumed administration of the Aquarium and the laboratory.

During these early years (1919 – 1973) admissions to the Aquarium were deposited to the State General Fund and did not return to the Aquarium for upkeep.

It was renamed the Waikīkī Aquarium following its reconstruction in 1955.

Compounding the financial and maintenance difficulties was the moving of the research function of the Aquarium to two new University institutions: the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) at Coconut Island in Kāne‘ohe Bay, and the Pacific Biomedical Research Center.

In 1975, when Dr. Leighton Taylor was appointed the third Director many positive changes came to the Aquarium and is credited for saving the aquarium from closing.

The logo, Education Department, Volunteer Program, library, research facility, gift shop, Friends of the Waikīkī Aquarium support organization and the first Exhibits Master Plan (1978) all came into being during his tenure.

By accepting donations, memberships and grants, the Aquarium was able to fund increased services and to renovate exhibits.

In April 2004, after an extensive international search, Dr. Andrew Rossiter was appointed the fifth Director, joining the Aquarium at the onset of its 100th Anniversary celebrations.

His long-term ambition at the Aquarium is to increase public awareness of the ecology and conservation of marine life and reef habitats through aquarium exhibits, research and education.

The Waikīkī Aquarium is open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., daily – general admission is $9; kama‘aina – $6

Special hours: Thanksgiving Day (November 22, 2012) 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (facility closes at 3:00 p.m.); New Year’s Day (January 1, 2013) 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (facility closes at 5:00 p.m.) and is Closed for the Honolulu Marathon Day (December 9, 2012) and Christmas Day (December 25, 2012.)

The image, from the University of Hawai‘i, shows the Waikīkī Aquarium in 1921. In addition, I have included several other aquarium and related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section (Courtesy of Waikīkī Aquarium) on my Facebook page.

In selecting a new fort and trading post site for the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) on the Columbia River in Oregon, they picked a location about 100-miles from the mouth at an opening in the forest called Jolie Prairie.

The new facility was to serve as the chief supply center for the company’s regional operation.

On March 19, 1825, the HBC opened Fort Vancouver on a bluff above the north bank of the Columbia River where the city of Vancouver, Clark County, is now located (named for British Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver (1757-1798.))

Yes, this is the same George Vancouver how first visited the islands as midshipman with Captain James Cook in 1778 and later led the expedition around the globe (and introduced the first cattle in Hawai‘i with a gift to Kamehameha I – he also discovered the Columbia River.)

But that is not the only Hawai‘i link to Fort Vancouver. However, before we go there, here’s some more background.

Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was a fur trading company that started in Canada in 1670. Fast forward 150-years and in 1821 it merged with its competitor and this expansion added territory on the Pacific.

So, Fort Vancouver became part of the expansion and establishment of forts and trading posts along the Pacific Northwest. Then, in 1829, HBC landed its first trading ship in Honolulu.

One of its primary ‘missions’ of that trip was that HBC was looking for a labor pool to help with its operations (they were also there to establish a trade business, as well as test the market for its primary products – lumber and salmon.)

A goal of the trip was to recruit a few seasoned seamen for HBC on the Northwest Coast, including “two good stout active Sandwich Islanders who have been to sea for 1, 2, or 3 years.”

At that time, Hawaiians had already played an important part in establishing the economic institutions of the Pacific Northwest. They provided the food and built the shelters of the fur traders and the early missionaries.

They had worked on many of the merchant ships plying between Hawaii, China, Europe and the Northwest. From the earliest Hawaiians who came as seamen or contract workers, to the ones who worked at Fort Vancouver and elsewhere along the Pacific Coast, they all made an important contribution to the development of the area.

As early as 1811, HBC had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest. By 1824, HBC employed thirty-five Hawaiians west of the Rocky Mountains.

Over the years, HBC’s Fort Vancouver had a unique relationship with the Hawaiian or “Sandwich” Islands, the nineteenth century trade hub of the Pacific.

During peak season, when the fur brigades returned to rest and re-supply, the settlement contained upwards of 600 inhabitants. For many years, the village was the largest settlement between Yerba Buena, (present day San Francisco, California) and New Archangel (Sitka, Alaska).

In the late-1830s Fort Vancouver became the terminus of the Oregon Trail. When American immigrants arrived in the Oregon Country during the 1830s and 1840s, and despite the instructions from the Hudson’s Bay Company that the fort should not help Americans, John McLoughlin, supervisor of the Columbia District, provided them with essential supplies to begin their new settlements.

Not only was the village one of the largest settlements in the West during the fur trade era, it was also unmatched in its diversity. The Hudson’s Bay Company purposefully hired people from different backgrounds, thus providing opportunities in the fur trade business to a variety of people from both the Old World and the New.

Few of the village spoke English, though French, Gaelic, Hawaiian and a variety of Native American languages were often heard. In order to communicate with one another, most villagers learned Chinook Jargon, a mix of Chinook, English and French.

Hawaiians worked as trappers, laborers, millers, sailors, gardeners and cooks; however HBC employed more people at agriculture than any other activity. The daily routine was work from sun up to sun down, with only Sundays off.

In 1840, Kamehameha III, faced with the seeming threat of racial extinction due to depopulation by both emigration and disease, enacted a law that required captains of vessels desiring to hire Hawaiians to obtain the written consent of the island governor and sign a $200 bond to return the Hawaiian back to Hawai‘i within a specified time.

HBC Governor Simpson, on a visit to Hawaii in 1841, reported, “About a thousand males in the very prime of life are estimated annually to leave the islands, some going to California, others to the Columbia, and many on long and dangerous voyages, particularly in whaling vessels, while a considerable number of them are said to be permanently lost to their country, either dying during their engagements, or settling in other parts of the world.”

In December 1845, the Hawaiian Government considered an act providing, “that all persons who shall hereafter introduce into the Oregon Territory any Sandwich Islanders … for a term of service shall pay a tax of five dollars for each person introduced.”

By 1849, the Hawaiian population at Fort Vancouver exceeded that of the French Canadians, due to the declining importance of furs and the rising export business of Fort Vancouver’s agricultural production and the consequent larger use of Hawaiian workers.

The number of Hawaiians working as contract laborers for the Company grew steadily. The large number of Hawaiian workers in the village led to the name “Kanaka Town” in the early 1850s – “Kanaka” is the word for “person” in the Native Hawaiian language. (At its peak, the village was home to around 535 men, 254 Indian women and 301 children.)

Several circumstances combined to bring an end to HBC’s activities at Fort Vancouver. The decline of the fur trade, the arrival of numerous American settlers to the newly organized Oregon Territory, the settlement of the boundary dispute with Great Britain which put the area under American sovereignty, all combined to hasten the decision to move the headquarters to Victoria, British Columbia.

In 1859, Hudson’s Bay Company withdrew from Fort Vancouver, the same year the decision was made to close the HBC trading facility in Honolulu.

The image shows the layout of Fort Vancouver Village in 1846. In addition, I have added other images and maps in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

Kaua‘i’s South Shore coastline, features a fascinating hike along the Māhā‘ulepū Heritage Trail, a 4-mile round trip stretching from Keoneloa Bay to Kawailoa Bay.

Along the way, there are natural and cultural features and tons of scenic sites – the following summarizes some of the:

1. Keoneloa Bay – “Long Sand, Long Beach”

This is a long stretch of sandy beach on the far eastern end of the Po‘ipū resort area, fronted by The Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa and a county park facility.

It is also known as Shipwreck Beach, named for the wreckage an old, wooden fishing boat on the beach back in the 1970s (that has long since disappeared.)

2. Makahuena – “Rough Face” & Makawehi – “Calm Face”

The unusual cliff formations were formed from sand dunes that have been weathered by wind and surf over the centuries. These ancient limestone sea cliffs have been virtually sandblasted by a combination of wind, salt and water.

Today Makawehi point is being undercut by continual wave erosion. The huge blocks of limestone that lie at the base of these cliffs are examples of that erosion.

3. Pā‘ā Dunes – “Fence of Lava Rock” or “Dry and Rocky”

About 8,000 years ago, dunes began forming atop Makawehi as sections of the sandy shoreline accumulated a reddish fossil soil overlay.

The tradewinds blowing from the northeast or mauka (mountain) side of this area have had the most dominant influence determining the shape of the dunes along this section of coast, with kona winds from the southwest having a minor influence.

4. Pinnacles

Sandstone-limestone pinnacles are usually formed by rain-water washing down along vertical fractures in the limestone. Pinnacles can be seen in stark formation to the right of a small bay just before the climb to the golf course.

5. Heiau Ho‘ouluia – “Fishing Temple”

This site is thought to have been a place of worship where fish were offered to the god of the sea, to ensure good fishing.

6. Punahoa – “To Bind or Lash”

Punahoa is composed of a very thick accumulation of coastal sand dunes that formed around 350,000 years ago. They are the oldest sand dunes of this region, carved by the tradewinds which formed all the dunes of this coast.

Along this area are short pieces of pipe anchored into the lava rock to hold fishing poles. This shoreline has been popular for centuries among local fishermen, catching primarily shoreline game fish such as ulua, papio (juvenile ulua) and oio.

7. Makauwahi Sinkhole – “Fear, Break Through”

The Makauwahi Sinkhole is a small portion of the largest limestone cave found in Hawaii. Paleoecological and archaeological excavations of the sediment that has filled the pond in the sinkhole put its age at some 10,000 years, and have revealed at least 45 species of bird life.

More importantly, the findings of this study show how the first humans that inhabited Kauai affected the pre-human natural environment. It is one of only a handful of sites in the world that show such impact.

8. Māhā‘ulepū Beach-“And Falling Together”

Māhā‘ulepū’s name comes from a legendary battle that occurred in the 1300s when Kalaunuio Hua, a Big Island ruler, made an attempt to take over all the Hawaiian islands.

By nightfall, it was evident that Kalaunuio Hua had lost the battle and became a prisoner to Kukona. Thus began the historical distinction of Kauai as an island that was never conquered.

9. Wai‘ōpili Petroglyphs – “Water Against”

In 1887, Kauai resident JK Farley discovered carved drawings or petroglyphs on a rock at Māhā‘ulepū Beach near the mouth of the Wai‘ōpili Stream. The carvings are normally covered by beach sand, but if tides and ocean conditions are right the petroglyphs can occasionally be seen.

North of Māhā‘ulepū Beach is a large petroglyph boulder which contains two cup-like carvings at the top. One of the carvings contains a pecked out groove from the cup and runs along the edge of the boulder.

The image shows the trail layout. The Māhā‘ulepū Heritage Trail is a project of the Po‘ipū Beach Foundation. In addition, I have added images of sites along the trail in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.